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Emerging Tech SIG: Open Source Cash

Description

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Abstract

Financial technology is about to enter a new phase thanks to distributed open source systems. The Ripple protocol, a virtual currency and distributed open source payment network, is a distributed global ledger that solves the double spend problem through a process of consensus rather than mining. Ripple replicates the key benefit of the earlier Bitcoin, a decentralized fixed amount currency that can’t be debased. Ripple furthers the Bitcoin mission with a new architecture that results in fast transactions (confirmations in seconds not minutes) and a multi-currency design that provides the world’s first distributed currency exchange.

OpenCoin co-founder Chris Larsen will sketch out the emerging technology from which first Bitcoin and then Ripple emerged. www.ripple.com

Bio

Chris Larsen is CEO and co-founder of OpenCoin, the organization that crafted the Ripple protocol. Mr. Larsen is also a cofounder and former eight-year CEO of Prosper, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace, and a cofounder and former eight-year CEO of E-Loan, a publicly traded online lender. During his tenure at E-Loan, he pioneered the open access to credit scores movement by making E-Loan the first company to show consumers their FICO scores. Mr. Larsen also played a pivotal role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy law in the nation and was hailed by Congresswoman Jackie Speier as being "critical to the success of the bill."

Mr. Larsen serves at the Board and Advisory levels at numerous companies and organizations including: Progreso Financiero, Betable, CreditKarma, and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.